Kharis

The changing face of Kharis: Lon Chaney's mask-like countenance in The Mummy's Ghost is considerably less gruesome than his previous appearance in The Mummy's Tomb and endures as the most familiar image of the character.

Kharis the name of the mummy featured in the four film produced by Universal Studios in the 1940s following their original 1932 film The Mummy, which starred Boris Karloff different mummy character, Im-ho-tep. Inspired by worldwide interest in Egyptian archeology of the era, the Mummy major Universal monster of the 1920s 30s and 40s whose origin fearsome credited to the film in which appears; the Phantom of the Opera, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, and the Invisible Man all originated in literature, and the Wolf Man derived werewolf myths. In the first Kharis The Mummy Hand 1940 the character played by Western Tom Tyler, while the three subsequent The Mummy Tomb 1942, The Mummy Ghost 1944, and The Mummy Curse 1944, starred Lon Chaney, Jr. in the role. Although the iconic image of the mummy face is usually Karloff', the Kharis responsible for the enduring stereotype of the lumbering, foot-dragging monster, Karloff bandaged creation is seen briefly while Kharis major on-screen character in four follow-up The Kharis movies introduce the notion of tana leaves integral to the mummy survival. The Mummy Hand introduces Kharis in series of flashbacks the original 1932 except for inserts Tyler replacing shots in which Karloff would conspicuous. The original ancient-Egypt scenes the story of Imhotep punished for attempting to resurrect dead lover while in the Kharis the identities and details of this story simply changed to describe similar alternate scenario. For reason the Kharis not sequels to the original, occasionally misperceived, relate narratively to for Kharis designed by Universal resident monster Jack Pierce. While Tyler features discerned easilt the could Karloff Chaney unrecognizable due in part to the increased use of mask rather than customized over the course of the While in The Wolf Man Chaney played the starring role both in and out of makeup Tyler shown the human Kharis in Chaney mummy during flashback scenes demoralizing budgetary measure showed Chaney importance to mainly that of his famous name. While the Kharis lack the artistic distinction of the 1930s Universal horror classics remain popular among genre fans. An aspect of the Kharis the years pass between narratively would the final one in the late 20th century, though no attempt made to the depiction of clothing, hairstyles, or technology. Christopher Lee portrayed Kharis in the 1959 Hammer horror The Mummy.

Kharis is very strong, and his biggest challenge is to strangle his victim. Kharis extremely resistant to physical damage, such as shooting, direct attacks, and fire. However, this is not absolute, since it is possible to destroy Kharis if the damage is massive. Another weakness of Kharis is that he moves very slowly, due to his body members are dead, only uses his left hand to strangle, requires "tana" to revive until the effect is passed, it becomes an inert corpse of new. Kharis has no free will, and is an instrument of death in the hands of modern Egyptian priests who use it to kill archaeologists who desecrate ancient tombs. He is very flammable.

In the 1999 remake of the film of 1932, "The Mummy" when the Anubis priests cut Imhotep's tongue to be mummified alive, is a reference to Kharis, since in the classic films of Universal and Hammer, Kharis's tongue is cut before be buried alive.

In the early plans in the early 90s, when Universal planned the new version of "The Mummy", in one of the first scripts of the movie, Imhotep would be the main character, and follow the same story as the classic film of 1932. But Imhotep would be an Egyptian general , and Kharis would make his appearance as a mummified former slave of Imhotep who is revived by Imhotep himself. This was scrapped, however.

Kharis is mentioned in the new non-canon mobile game "The Mummy: Dark Universe Stories